Operation Witchcraft

Chapter 7: The Commander

Demetri knew Ella followed him into the library. He knew she had listened into the conversation he had. She used the same tricks when she was young - although she was only marginally better at hiding her steps now.

Almost eleven years ago, a fire had raged through a lab run by some Sanctuary alchemists after a botched summoning ritual. The creature, which remains untrapped, burned the lab down and killed everyone who had been around. Ella's parents were among the dead.

Ella had been a budding mage at the time. She was bright and incredibly powerful. After the fire, the Sanctuary planned to move her to a European branch to continue her studies. The day they made that decision, Ella used the same charm to listen in. Later that day, she was gone. The Sanctuary quickly lost track of her, despite their attempts to find her. She had spent gods knows how long on the streets. It was a small comfort that she looked okay now.

Demetri, in the meantime, had focused on training to push through the grief. He basically vanished from the face of the planet, focusing so heavily training that he had no time for anyone else. Demetri's parents weren't among the alchemists who had been working on that ritual, so they encouraged him as best they could. Demetri graduated extremely early - he was now an active mage, at age 20, where the standard was 25. Every spare moment he had was spent on searching for Ella's signature.

Not that it mattered anymore, given the mission he had just been given.

He was to find the same book that had killed all those mages. The Ignus wanted the book for the same reason the Nox did - that book contained the passages for immeasurable power that could be used to change the world. He knew others were already on the task, trying to find any link to the book's past, but his mission was a bit different. Demetri had to interrogate Ella, the only survivor of the book's last known location. His stomach turned just thinking about that conversation.

"What exactly do I say? 'Hey, sorry I disappeared from your life for over a decade. Can I see that book that killed your parents?'" Demetri mumbled, "yea, that will go great."

It was at that opportune moment that Demetri stumbled into the woman of the hour - Daniella Newberry.

"Ella," Demetri started.

"You have some things to answer for." Ella's voice was ice. Demetri's stomach turned again.

"As do you."

Ella narrowed her eyes, pursing her lips at him. Every instinct in Demetri's body was telling him to run, but he steeled his nerves and stared her down. Ella had grown up in the decade the two had been apart, but then again, so had he. Demetri had no way of knowing what she did and did not know about magic. Her knowledge could either be as expensive as his - bought off the streets - or barely any more than what she knew at ten.

He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the intercom cracking around them.

"Demetri Wiseman. Daniella Newberry. Report to the Commander 's office. Demetri Wiseman. Daniella Newberry. Report to the Commander 's office."

The pair stared at each other for another few moments, before moving to the office.

The door before the Commander's office was one Demetri was well accustomed to. Over the years, Demetri had been called in for meetings about him skipping forward another year, him going on another high-profile mission, him traveling overseas.

Demetri opened the door for Ella, and stepped in behind her. The Commander was sitting before them, a serious look on his face. He was in his early fourties, young for a Commander. He was a black man, powerful in that in grew up at the tail end of segregation amonst the Ignis. Mages were slow to social change, but when they caught on, it spreads like wild fire.